Preserving Buildings, Building Community

Calumet Community Garden meeting

September 22, 2025 by Blandin Foundation Posted in Grants, Rural Placemaking, Small Communities

How the city of Calumet is turning one leaky roof into a perfect community gathering space.

City halls, coffee shops, and public libraries are often beloved community gathering spaces in small towns. And on top of the obvious economic benefit of preserving buildings whenever possible instead of turning to new construction, these historic spaces are also marked with decades of memories that deserve preservation for future generations.

So when the city of Calumet, located 15 miles east of Grand Rapids in Itasca County’s Greenway Township, discovered their city hall and library (which co-exist in the same building) desperately needed a new roof, their team sought support from Blandin Foundation for help fixing up the 1930s facility.

“The roof was the first thing. We had leaks,” said April Serich, Calumet’s city clerk, of the 2022 grant they received for the initial repairs. “But then, we discovered that the bricks along the building’s walls — the top three, four, and in some areas five feet — were really bad. It was way above the cost that we had planned on.”

Around this same time, Calumet acquired a variety of mining artifacts and memorabilia from the nearby Hill Annex State Park Museum after the park closed down in 2024 to resume iron ore mining. In addition, the city was also gifted an empty bank building, and Calumet residents had long been asking for a community garden and gathering space, maybe even a coffee shop or restaurant of some kind. These asks and needs presented a unique and interconnected opportunity to foster belonging in the town of 334 residents and create a space for both neighbors and visitors alike to gather and connect. The city was given an additional $250,000 as part of Blandin Foundation’s Small Communities Grant Program to tackle not just the additional city hall and library repairs but also develop these new placemaking projects.

On Serich’s immediate to-do list was installing a lift at the city hall and library to make the building more accessible, so more of the area’s elderly and wheelchair users could make use of the many events and community activities that Calumet offers.

“Our library has so many good things going,” Serich told us. “People come here from all over — not just Calumet, but Pengilly, Marble, Grand Rapids. We never turn somebody away just because they’re not living in Calumet. We have a Halloween party. We have a Christmas party. We dress up, decorate. We have a tea party in the spring, with umbrellas hanging from the ceilings and costumes and fancy foods. It’s easier to do those kinds of events when you have the space, and when the space is functioning the way it needs to.”

With Calumet’s city hall and library taken care of, the possibilities seemed endless for the empty bank building.

“We had somebody who wanted to go in there and do a coffee shop,” Serich shared. “They were going to buy the building outright, but it didn’t work out. The city then put it out there for rent or for sale. A couple of months ago, we got somebody else who’s interested in putting in a coffee, ice cream, and sub shop. We’re now getting the building ready to have that business come in. There’s also office space available in there and there’s a section that is going to be a community space.”

It’s this community space that has Serich especially excited on a personal level. Among other planned features, it will include all of those mining artifacts and memorabilia acquired from Hill Annex State Park Museum, a place her own children enjoyed when they were younger and will now live on despite the museum’s closure.

“My husband’s dad was on the museum wall. He’d just come over from Yugoslavia and worked in the mines. It was so fun showing my kids when they were little, showing them that picture,” Serich said. “To be able to preserve that history, just to be able to save it and display it so that future generations can see? It’s exciting.”

The community space in Calumet will also feature a garden, something residents eagerly welcome and which will give them a chance to learn about, grow, and even potentially sell their own foods at a future community market.

“The library is going to be teaching kids and adults how to garden, and then how to cook with the foods that they grew themselves, and then sell at the community market and learn that whole process,” Serich shared with us, noting the cost-savings benefit that this offering will provide for residents as well as the mental health impacts of spending time working with one’s hands outdoors. “We also want to have a giving garden, with food people can give away [to anyone who needs it].”

The overarching goal of the bank building renovation project is to provide the city of Calumet with a safe, welcoming place for people of all ages and abilities to gather for socialization, camaraderie, business, and learning. So far, the project is on track to do all of that and more, and it will ultimately become a revenue-generating financial asset to the city. But the thing residents are most excited about, said Serich, is the incoming coffee, ice cream, and sub shop, named The Hematite.

One look at their Facebook page says it all. “Can’t wait for your opening day!” one resident commented on a recent post. “Looking forward to this!” another added. When the shop’s owners sought local businesses and vendors to collaborate with on the development and opening, residents flocked to the comments to share their favorites and recommendations.

“There’s nowhere really between Grand Rapids and Hibbing to go get a coffee,” Serich told us. “People will be able to grab a cup before work, get lunch. And with the community space attached, they can come socialize, read a book, maybe even rent it for a birthday party. People are so excited about this.”

The city of Calumet is just one of many examples of communities finding new and innovative ways to nurture personal connections, which for centuries have provided strength and identity to people who live in rural areas. It’s this feeling of identity and ownership that has Calumet residents especially engaged with these new projects.

“They make people want to get involved,” Serich said. “They make people in the community feel connected, feel included. It’s exciting to see things progressing. Blandin has been wonderful to us.”